'Cash-cow' fury after number of parking tickets soars fivefold to 3.5million since 2001

By RAY MASSEY

Last updated at 09:51 01 April 2008

New rules: From today motorists can get parking tickets sent in the post

A record 3.58million drivers were hit with parking fines that funnelled £214million into council coffers in a single year, figures have revealed.

They represent a five-fold rise in fines since 2001 and mean that more than one in ten motorists nationwide had to pay a parking penalty.

The statistics came on the same day that traffic wardens and councils across England and Wales were given the power - for the first time outside London - to issue tickets through the post for offences caught on CCTV.

The figures apply only to 159 councils operating so-called "decriminalised parking" in 2006.

This is usually where private companies are paid to run the ticketing in place of traditional traffic wardens or police.

If London and those councils still relying on the police are included, there were more than eight million parking fines issued in 2006.

They generated £480million in fines, rising to around £1billion of income when parking fees are added.

But the annual report from the National Parking Adjudication Service had some good news for

motorists. It said nearly seven out of ten who take complaints over fines to a final appeal are successful and in four out of ten cases the councils do not even bother to contest the challenge.

The watchdog said: "The volume of appeals which are not contested by the councils is a cause for concern.

"Of greater concern is the proportion of appeals involving vehicles which have been clamped or removed which the councils do not contest.

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New look: Traffic wardens are now called civil enforcement officers and from today they will be able to issue tickets by post as well as helping to prevent vehicle crime

"In these cases the appellant has had to pay the penalty charge and release fee to get their vehicle back."

The report found that one council had failed to contest 55 per cent of its appeals.

Motoring groups said the figures showed councils were "trying it on" by knowingly allowing bogus and spurious parking tickets to go unchecked.

According to the NPAS, which is being relaunched as the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the biggest area of contention is the socalled "fluttering ticket" where drivers stick a pay-and-display ticket on the dashboard.

In many cases it drops off - often because the tickets are too flimsy or the adhesive is not strong enough.

The report said: "The fluttering pay and display ticket is a perennial issue for the adjudicators."

More than 200 councils now take part in the "decriminalised parking" scheme and the watchdog is the final place to appeal for motorists after other avenues have been exhausted.

The NPAS said 68 per cent of appeals are successful either because the council backs down or because the watchdog finds in the motorist's favour. In 2006 it received 9,968 appeals.

That figure may rise sharply this year as more and more drivers are caught on CCTV and fined for offences they were unaware they had committed.

CCTV teams will be able to monitor streets to spot drivers who park on a yellow line or overstay at a parking meter, taxis dropping off customers and drivers making deliveries or collections.

The first the driver may know about any offence is when a penalty charge notice drops through the letter box.

Critics have said the rules are another "cash-raising scam" at the expense of the motorist.

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'Cash-cow' fury after number of parking tickets soars fivefold to 3.5million since 2001